About me

Hello! I'm Julie, grower of all things organic, including three kids. I'm a Master Gardener, heirloom specialist, owner of Garden Delights, and lover of all things garden and nature-related. I write the blog Garden Delights, a chronicle of growing gardens, growing green, growing locavores, growing kids, and growing one day at a time.

Boys and their toys...it never ends, no matter how old the boy becomes.

Of course, though, if the boy is an renowned artist and gardener, toys can dominate a design in the name of art.

And art suddenly becomes more accessible to the neighborhood boys...and girls...and all of those grown-up folks who find Tonka trucks irresistible in a gorgeous enclave of purples and blues and rusty browns.

Following the visit to the mystical Wamboldtopia on day one of the Asheville

These are not just any poppies. While lurking among the foliage, I overheard Christopher telling the story of his poppies. Beautiful as all of the poppies are in his garden, he works to select specimens that are true blue, culling out the remaining poppies tinged with red in the hopes that he will stabilize a new cultivar, to be named 'Pearl Blue.'

The bees didn't give preferential treatment to the pure blue poppies.

But I would. These are some seriously gorgeous blooms.

I'm lusting for 'Pearl Blue' poppies, although I must admit...I've never succeeded in growing poppies.

I blame our zone.

The garden beds buzzed with pollinators, while the palate selected by Christopher provided a calm, softening frame for his avant-garde works of art:

Winged baby heads.

A nightmare-inducing pagan-ish fellow.

Re-purposed rusted wheelbarrows.

An army of shovels, saluting the fleet of Tonkas.

I adored the heart of the garden, "Dump Truck Park."

Wondering whether this was an artist's ironic view of play—or if the trucks logged any actual time with real kids, I loved to hear that Christopher shares his play space with the area children, allowing them a safe haven to zoom around while their adults relax among the flora.